If the page was a little quiet yesterday, I apologize. I’ve been an airplane nut much longer than I’ve been a journalist, so when I get to combine the two, some things take a backseat.
Heading to the Cold Lake Airshow is a strange mix of stepping back in time and glimpsing the future, all within a four-hour span. Sitting here with a sunburn from a day I won’t soon forget, I know I’m one of the lucky ones.
A walk through history
The day started with a walk through the aircraft, including a trip front to back through a C-5 Galaxy, brought to the base by the U.S. Air Force’s Strategic Airlift Command. Kids everywhere soaked in the planes and viewed the cockpits that their great-grandfathers generation would/could never even imagine.
At noon, under clouds that threatened to rain on the whole event, the Skyhawks took to the sky. It was time for the first reflection of the day. We’re now 108 years removed from the first combat jump. In August 1918, Italian Lieutenant Alessandro Tandura leaped from 1,600 feet behind Austro-Hungarian lines near Vittorio Veneto, Italy.
A mock dogfighting pair from the Seattle area followed, putting kit planes through manoeuvres developed largely during First World War combat. That puts us 111 years removed from pilots firing pistols at each other in the air in 1914.
From trainers to Thunderbolts
A jump forward of about 30 years brought the distinct sound of the Canadian Harvard Trainer. It was the only aircraft to break the sound barrier all day, or at least the tips of its propeller did. An estimated 25,000 pilots trained in the Harvard as part of the Commonwealth Air Training Program in Canada during the Second World War.
Luke Penner and Neil Harris Airshows brought engines with parts attached, throwing their planes through moves that would have torn the wings off early bi- and tri-planes. Both performed a manoeuvre called the hammerhead, first flown in 1915 by German fighter ace Max Immelmann. It has survived 111 years. Even the F-22 pulled off a similar move later in the show.
A B-25 bomber, the same type used in the Doolittle Raid, took to the skies. Its owners also brought a P-38 Lightning, a plane with a top speed approaching that of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds. A Republic P-47 Thunderbolt closed out that section of the show. Announcers said its weight let it outdive anything chasing it, making for a fast escape from trouble.
Jets, rescues and the future of combat
The CF-18 demonstration squadron came back to where, at least the pilots were trained. CFB Cold Lake is one of two permanent stations for our aging fleet of fighter craft. The other being CFB Bagotville, QC.
A jet-powered glider met a jet-powered car in a race down centre stage. Yes, a jet-powered glider, designed by a rocket scientist. Go figure.
A demonstration by the Canadian Forces CH-148 Cyclone showed off its rescue capabilities. The first combat helicopter rescue happened in 1944, when a pilot picked up three British soldiers, one by one, in Burma.
Then it was on to the future of aerial combat. The U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor showed off part of what it can do in combat. It’s the first fifth-generation fighter and the only American fighter jet never offered to another country.
A possible final flight
The show closed with the Snowbirds, in what’s billed as the last year of this iteration. For those who insist they’ll be back, I’ll believe it when I see it. Standing down this fleet and bringing it back in five to 10 years would be difficult. The new turboprops coming in won’t be able to do what the Tutors do, if they return at all.
Still, the show, which I’ve watched since I was a kid, never gets old. Two thoughts stayed with me all day. What would a First World War pilot make of the advancements made in just over a century since they pioneered flight? And I kept thinking of the poem “High Flight.”
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ….
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
If you didn’t make it out yesterday, the airshow portion starts again at noon today. It’s well worth the drive to see it.
